Why do people....

lol! Cuz they don't realize. And in some cases starting is very hard because they haven't done it in so long. Pain is a major reason. What they don't realize is, it's normal to have some discomfort at the beginning, but if they take it slow and work up to a better pace over the course of weeks or months most of this pain (joints, muscles, soarness) goes away.

I hear you. I think it is like cutting calories. It takes a little time to get used to it and get over the "hate it" bump and get into feeling better.

I truly wish that every person would push themselves through the misery of it. I know it's hard to get the drive to get up and go sometimes and make it a priority. I mean, it is a commitment because you have to go several hours in the course of a week. I used to not like it at all and now I LOVE it. I love how it makes me feel, both the endorphins and my health! My endurance is SO much better now. In fact, I have to bump up the level now and then because it starts to get too easy.

If I head to the gym and am feeling the beginning of a migraine come on, it will go away about 10 minutes into my cardio. If it is "that time of the month" and I go to the gym, it relieves the cramping. If I am bloated and feel icky and head to the gym, I sweat out the bloat and feel better. If I argue with my hubby (LOL!), I head to the gym and work out my frustrations and feel better. It has AMAZING benefits other than helping with weight-loss.

I am an endorphin addict! lol!

I suspect some people find it inconvenient because they think they have to spend a lot of time or money, or they have to go to the gym. A friend of mine convinced me to start working out and after he told me what HE was doing, I realized how much change I had noticed in him and that he really wasn't doing anything that intense. A great deal of benefit can be realized from just thirty minutes a day, in your home, with very little (if any) expenditure. And, provided you start small, the soreness is minimal.

I am an endorphin addict! lol!

Hmmm. As far as I know, I have never felt endorphins. I just feel like I can keep going and it feels OK, or like I can keep going but sorta don't want to, can keep going and REALLY don't want to, or can't go any more. But it never feels GOOD...

Do you want the physical pain of starting, cuz that's gonna eventually give way to mental pleasure (proud of yourself, your new body...etc).

Or do you want the mental pain of always feeling like you are a failure, or guilty, or what ever feelings you get from knowing you SHOULD be exercising in some way, but aren't. I submit that the physical pain is far less scary, and far less permenant!

That's a great way to put it.

bump

thanks to posts like this (shout out tam, banks, shorerider) I have increased my exercise. If night falls and I have not done my 45-60 min I cant go to bed.

I have added weight training and different cardio work outs.

Thanks to all y'all for your posts. They are informative and helpful.

Today I walked on the beach 2 miles, in a bathing suit, with my head held high, and my Ipod jammin'.

Burned it up, yes I did. (there should be one of those babies to the left that SWEATS!)

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

I think we do what we know, and we resist change. It takes the process of mental change, and then behavior change over an extended period to change our behaviors. Once we build exercise into our routine and stick with it, it becomes part of what we know, and since we resist change, we continue to exercise. I miss it if I don't get it into my day, but sooo didn't use to be that way!

In reply to the first TNTPete's post
Well you yourself said you had a love hate relationship with exercise...
some people are not quite where you are now vis-a-vis exercise adherence...
In time some will grow to love it
some never will. that is what makes us unique and individual I suppose....

good response...glad you posted it! :happy:

I think there are any number of reasons...size, self confidence, money for clothes, (yes even shorts or sweat pants and Tshirts if you don't have them), swimsuit if you've got a water class to go too, fear of change, wondering if you'll fit in. (Realizing later it really doesn't matter because that's not why you're there in the first place!):laugh:

Like Banks mentioned not having done it for awhile it can take getting used too. Also good point on folks that don't excercise regularly don't really understand all the great benefits, the extra energy, that high you get when you've accomplished what you set out to do that day....oh so many reasons come to mind that I've now experienced since beginning a regular regime.

My reasons before I started working out last year were my size, lack of funds, deciding what exactly I would be capable of doing...it was scary when I started out. But I had gotten to the point where a person gets when they just DO IT! When you have no more excuses and want to make that change...something happens within us and you begin, whether it's quit smoking, healthy eating, cutting back on whatever you need to for you body to be healthiest.

I am someone that absolutely LOVES my workouts!! I look forward to them...but my life before I began to lose weight was very different before healthy eating habits came back and exercise.

I was living a very isolated life, my marriage had ended, income had seriously dropped...so along came depression. Something clicked one day...and that was it for me!! It was what I needed to begin caring about myself again. I can't say what it was...but I began very healthy clean eating, began to lose quite a bit of weight, got soooooo much more mobile and then began to workout regularly.

When I first joined the gym, it was tough...not using your muscles for a time makes them pretty out of shape....I look back now and see how very far I've come...yes I do have a ways to go but I'm living my life NOW and am very social which the gym has helped so much with. I look forward to seeing friends I work out with...it's absolutely a regular part of each day now.

Just a peek into one person's past before the excercise switch clicked on.... :happy:

Interesting topic...some things can't be understood unless we are wearing their shoes for a moment.

I LOVE exercise, but it is my biggest challenge. In fact, since tracking my food for a month and a half I'm dead on without trying. I'm balanced, eating enough, not too much, blah blah blah. It's all about how my exercise decreased from 5 - 7 miles of running and weight lifting daily to a mere 1/2 hour bike commute since starting grad school. I feel like a slug.

Making time for as much as I need when my work days are already long, and the weather is still over 100. I tend to spend my limited time with my kids and hubby rather than at the gym. I feel selfish going when my family sees so little of me.

My goal this week (now that I'm flu-free) is to delay starting work by an hour and work out from 6:30 to 7:30 am before I go to my desk/lab. I can spare that (I'm telling myself hoping I'll believe it.)

I was and probably still am someone who hates to exercise. I've tried to lose weight again and again over the years without exercise and have yet to lose all my weight or to keep it off.

I believe in starting slow. My first task when I joined this site was to figure out how to keep my calories around 1200. That took me 2 weeks of trying different foods to stay full etc and have had some slip ups but have a pretty good idea how to do that.

So now I've added in the exercise portion. It's only been just over a week and I still don't like it but boy do I like the way I feel after. And those extra calories....love them!! In fact I took today off from working out and was not happy about sticking to 1200 cals and felt lazy so I had to at least get out and take my dogs for an easy hike. I do have a gym membership which is a bit expensive but I also have some DVD's to do at home that were pretty cheap and hiking with my pups is free so money is no excuse. I think once excercising becomes more routine for me...(I'm giving it at least a month of being consistent with it), I will learn to love it like so many others. Never thought I'd think that....EVER!!!

I think the only way I'm going to achieve my goals this time is with proper eating and exercise. The only way I'm going to keep it off this time is with proper eating and exercise! It's about leading a healthy life for me....not just getting skinny.

Any ways, just some of my thought on the issue.

Shauna:flowerforyou:

bumpity bump....off to the gym but I'll be back to respond, read a bit more here :happy:

:flowerforyou: Have a great morning everyone!!

:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

When I first realized I would need to exercise to drop weight, I was bummed.


Here was what I remember about why I didn't want to work out:

1. I had asthma and was an out of shape smoker. A short walk would wind me. A workout was real work!

2. I had no time. Lunch breaks were for going out to lunch with coworkers! I tried getting up at 5am and hitting the gym but that only lasted for less than a month, having a 1 year old at home and being a night-owl myself.

3. Didn't want to spend the money on the gym anyhow. It's expensive!

4. If I had to start small, I was going to be the laughing-stock of the gym, feeling like a total fattie and a loser.



I ended up changing my mindset. I WANTED a change in my life. I wanted to be able to breathe without the aid of three daily asthma medications and a rescue inhaler. I wanted to come off the 5 other medications for my other ailments. I wanted to be healthy.

I started with yoga twice a week and a ride on the elliptical my third workout day every week. Yoga was low impact but it wore me out and was a great start for me. I saw results.

Now, I hate missing a workout. I'm an endorphine junkie, even wanting to workout at home in the evenings! I feel a little nuts about how much I love exercise now, to be honest. But I remember how hard it was in the beginning. It's hard to go from 'nothing' to 'something' that requires effort and time and dedication.

Everyone is different. Some people just don't realize that they have to exercise to lose weight (you may laugh, but when I went to Weight Watchers and my leader would ask who exercised, I was one of the few that did, and many members would say "oh, its because you're young"), that it will just come off by dieting. Also, self-consciousness, which is also my problem. I don't feel comfortable going to a gym when I know I'm bound to run into someone that I know, and I just don't like the thought of others looking at me while I exercise. I take dance classes at a studio which are great because they're fun, and I'm there to learn, I've stopped caring about what my classmates think a long time ago. I also walk everywhere (it is a mile from the bus stop to my college, or, if I take a different bus, it is still a 1/2 mile from that stop down to the buildings), I love walking in NYC, except for when I get lost trying to find my train, lol.

I do miss strength training, I was so much stronger in high school than I am now because I took a weight training gym class my freshman year. At one point, on the machine that you sit on the chair and push the weights with your legs, I was doing around 150lbs per rep on that. Now I'll be lucky if I can break 100. I went to Curves for awhile, but it just wasn't enough for me, and I felt like I wasn't getting enough because I think I needed to increase the weights because I got so used to them.